#Questioning established meanings

[mumblesplash]

gem, what happened to your eye?

(wanted to upload this panel separately, original is from this comic)

[serpentface]

how do you come up with the ways cultures in your setting stylize people/animals/the world in general in their artwork, i.e. jewlery, rock carvings, statues, etc? Each culture in your world seems to have a very unique "art style" and I love it a lot - makes them seem that much more 'real'. This is something I struggle with a lot in my own worldbuilding and I'd love to pick your brain if possible 😁

I think a starting point is to have a research process based in the material realities of the culture you're designing for. Ask yourself questions like:

Where do they live? What's the climate/ecosystem(s) they are based in? What geographic features are present/absent?

What is their main subsistence method? (hunter gatherer, seasonal pastoralist, nomadic pastoralist, settled agriculturalist, a mix, etc)

What access to broader trade networks do they have and to whom? Are there foreign materials that will be easily accessible in trade and common in use, or valuable trade materials used sparingly in limited capacities?

Etc

And then do some research based on the answers, in order to get a sense of what materials they would have routine access to (ie dyes, metal, textiles, etc) and other possible variables that would shape how the art is made and what it's used for. This is just a foundational step and won't likely play much into designing a Style.

If you narrow these questions down very specifically, (ie in the context of the Korya post- grassland based mounted nomads, pastoralist and hunter-gatherer subsistence, access to wider trade networks and metals), you can direct your research to specific real world instances that fit this general idea. This is not to lift culturally specific concepts from the real world and slap them into your own setting, but to notice commonalities this lifestyle enforces - (ie in the previous example- mounted nomadic peoples are highly mobile and need to easily carry their wealth (often on clothing and tack) therefore small, elaborate decorative artwork that can easily be carried from place to place is a very likely feature)

For the details of the art itself, I come up with loose 'style guides' (usually just in my head) and go from there.

Here's some example questions for forming a style (some are more baseline than others)

Are geometric patterns favored? Organic patterns? Representative patterns (flowers, animals, stars, etc)? Abstract patterns?

Is there favored material(s)? Beads, bone, clay, metals, stones, etc.

When depicting people/animals, is realism favored? Heavy stylization? The emotional impression of an animal? Are key features accentuated?

How perspective typically executed? Does art attempt to capture 3d depth? Does it favor showing the whole body in 2 dimensions (ie much of Ancient Egyptian art, with the body shown in a mix of profile and forward facing perspective so all key attributes are shown)? Will limbs overlap? Are bodies shown static? In motion?

Does artwork of people attempt to beautify them? Does it favor the culture's conception of the ideal body?

Are there common visual motifs? Important symbols? Key subject matters?

What is the art used for? Are its functions aesthetic, tutelary, spiritual, magical? (Will often exist in combination, or have different examples for each purpose)

Who is represented? Is there interest in everyday people? Does art focus on glorifying warriors, heroes, kings?

Are there conventions for representing important figures? (IE gods/kings/etc being depicted larger than culturally lesser subjects)

Is there visual shorthand to depict objects/concepts that are difficult to execute with clarity (the sun, moon, water), or are invisible (wind, the soul), or have no physical component (speech)?

Etc

Deciding on answers to any of these questions will at least give you a unique baseline, and you can fill in the rest of the gaps and specify a style further until it is distinct. Many of these questions are not mutually exclusive, both in the sense of elements being combined (patterns with both geometric and organic elements) or a culture having multiple visual styles (3d art objects having unique features, religious artwork having its own conventions, etc).

Also when you're getting in depth, you should have cultural syncretism in mind. Cultures that routinely interact (whether this interaction is exchange or exploitation) inevitably exchange ideas, which can be especially visible in art. Doing research on how this synthesizing of ideas works in practice is very helpful- what is adopted or left out from an external influence, what is retained from an internal influence, what is unique to this synthesis, AND WHY. (I find Greco-Buddhist art really interesting, that's one of many such examples)

Looking at real world examples that fit your parameters can be helpful (ie if I've decided on geometric patterns in my 'style guide', I'll look at actual geometric patterns). And I strongly encourage trying to actually LEARN about what you're seeing. All art exists in a context, and having an understanding of how the context shapes art, how art does and doesn't relate to broader aspects of a society, etc, can help you when synthesizing your own.

[monsterfuckermilligan]

i’m sure this has been said before but when adam and michael are talking in the bunker about the possibility of michael’s dad being a grade a asshole, there’s something so so so important to me about how adam points out michael’s hypocrisy.

ADAM: Point is…. Parents keep secrets. Does it hurt to ask the question?

MICHAEL: Yes! It would mean I doubt him. The good son; the favorite doubts his father.

ADAM: You still care about that? After he left you in the cage?

this matters because michael was JUST criticizing sam and dean for leaving adam and how he is in unable to trust them. he doubts them because of their actions.

MICHAEL: You’re asking me to trust you. You who doomed me, you who let Lucifer walk free while your own brother sat in Hell.

in turn, adam is pointing out that clearly michael has a line for his family members and it’s been crossed by michael’s own, so why is his dad any different than sam or dean? what makes michael different than adam? why does his dad get to betray and abandon him and still get michael’s trust and loyalty? why is michael expendable?

he’s really tapping into michael’s beliefs that were just established to us as the audience at the diner. (ie: family sometimes hurts you and just because they’re blood relatives or ‘family’ doesn’t mean they have your best interests at heart. sometimes there are things more important than family, sometimes walking away from your family is freedom) and he’s holding michael to the same standard he’s set for the winchesters.

side note: another thing i enjoy about this interaction is that adam is being gentle, although it 100% appears as if they’ve had this conversation before since he literally rolls his eyes, and not to mention that michael is an archangel. he could easily be mean or not even care about his feelings or michael could not even take his opinion into account and do what he wants. but despite everything, adam asks for michael to listen to him, and he does. and in turn adam appeals to him with logic and reasoning, because he’s overall a very rational and strategic being that’s simply been groomed from the get go in his dad’s weird cult. adam appeals to his emotions in a way that’s familiar. they share this experience. adam knows michael is protective of him and that it’s easy for michael to hate sam and dean for the same things his dad has done. but michael’s own lack of self worth that was drilled into him by his dad for aeons is being challenged, and it’s uncomfortable for him, but adam doesn’t back down and he helps get through to him. it’s really a great scene. this post wasn’t meant to be so long but yeah i have lots of thoughts about this short interaction!

[tev-the-random]

"Aw man, what are they gonna do with Shadow now that he got his closure with Maria's wish and everything? What sort of story can he possibly have after that?"

*points frantically at Sonic 06*

[bonefall]

"Back in my day we loved our abusers or just disregarded them. We would never smash their heads against a wall until they agreed with us"

So... so you're just admitting you tried to Love and Kindness the abuse away?? You did that??? You think it's BAD to fight back against someone who is BEATING YOU?

Or does that mean, "we never demanded better treatment or justice. We just waited for our abusers to realize the error of their ways, like good victims."

I REALLY hope they get paid enough to go to therapy, this is actual factual abuse apologia. I am once again legitimately concerned for the mental health of these writers

[bizlybebo]

hi guys ^__^

[plurpaws]

Why is the sparkledog community entirely consisted of incest/zoo/maps now I don't get it

In real life we say "hi" and "how are you"

But to answer this seriously... please don't send me asks like this. I shouldn't have to say anything else but it just makes me uncomfortable. thanks

[nobodysdaydreams]

Giving a complicated tragic childhood backstory to your favorite character is all fun and games, until you realize you need to account for how old all the other adult characters would have been at the time and realize that scenes that would work perfectly if one character was twenty three and the other was fourteen stop working when you need other characters who are played by adult actors clearly younger than they are to be in college at the same time so your story beats line up thematically.

[vegalocity]

Considering: how Minyi might react to bb Bell.

Well- it depends on how old she was when Bell was born. She's about six during the events of LMK so depending on how long Goliath and Meiyun were together before they had Bell she could be anywhere from eight- to like fourteen when they had Bell

I think on the younger side she just FULLY adopts her as a baby sister even though that's absolutely not how family works, Nah it totally IS tho because the spiders haven't had any kids in hundreds of years since Huntsman and Goliath became of age, so the idea that they wouldn't be communally raising the kid is of course absurd.

and it's not that she wouldn't adopt Bell as a baby sister if she was more on the older side, but i think it'd be more... complicated.

Minyi is fully human, she's BEEN fully human and she will continue to BE fully human until she almost dies when a case goes too wrong and someone injects her with that vial of 'just in case' spider venom to rapidly heal her wounds but also make her a hybrid like her father is now. She had to fight for clan acceptance beyond 'Huntsman and Goliath individually like her well enough but she can't REALLY be clan because she and the Queen don't like eachother' and arguably still doesn't have it and might not until she's fully an adult and goes from Teen Sleuth to Kingpin crimelord (No joke thats her future when she hits adult years) but Bell was named princess from the moment she was handed to SQ

If she's a teenager at the time i think she'd still love and care for Bell very much, but I think there would be some sort of tone of muted resentment to it. Like, the kind where you do kinda feel bad about how easy something came to someone younger when you had to fight for every step in the process, but you also aren't REALLY surprised. Because when did ANYTHING ever come easy to Wong Minyi? Her life has been nothing but the hard way for longer than she can remember.

That said- when she's an adult and IS that Kingpin of crime, forcing the spider clan back into proper relevancy (albeit through different means than they would have expected) she ABSOLUTELY would go full 'this is my precious baby sister Bell she's the crime princess of this mafia and if anyone makes her cry you're taking a long walk of a short pier'

[la-pheacienne]

my new fav common argument used by Tumblr's Absolute Authorities of George Martin's Work (towards the end of a debate when they don't have any actual arguments left) is that "Fire and Blood is bad". it's bAd u guyz! what are we even fighting about? oh you thought we were having a genuine debate about whether the tv show is a faithful adaptation of the source material and the implications of the different perspectives for the characters, premise, lore and overall message of the story? well fuck you we're not doing that because guess what, the source material is BAD anyway and the 98494 receipts you just gave us are useless now because we just moved the goalposts and you're a loser for even engaging with the source material to begin with lmaooo

[a-wins-a-win]

it’s thinking about lucadia hours

[seilon]

more and more it makes me kind of uncomfortable (for lack of a better/softer word) to call my own characters ‘ocs’. because like. they’re from a completely original universe and from completely original intertwined stories and all that. so why would i have to specify they’re original in the same way someone would when referring to a character they made for a pre-existing non-original universe/franchise/whatever? by that logic every fiction author ever would be referring to their characters as ocs rather than just. their characters. you know.

[lys-jeorge]

Anyone wanna know an inconsequential BTS thing I always found a bit sus and for some reason just popped back into my brain?

Yeh? ok

When they're asked who the best dancer is and they all say J-Hope, now the other 6 all agreeing on this? I'd be suprised but it's not inherently sus, the sus is J-Hope. What's your answer my guy? Even if he thinks it's himself usually they have a someone other than themself answer they'll use, you'd think even if he wanted to say himself he'd say probably Jimin, but someone else, him not doing that is so like...

when they were rookies they were told this is what their answer should be, and they've stuck with it ever since.

[lover-of-mine]

Okay, so I've been feeling deranged about couches since Buck fell asleep on Eddie's couch but it got me thinking about how, speaking literally here, Buck also didn't pick Eddie's couch. Sure, Eddie's house is clearly a place where Buck is comfortable but it's not like Buck was helping Eddie pick furniture (that we know of). But that also got me thinking about the fact that the 3 girlfriends Buck had came with literal couches. Buck says 2 because Ali helped him pick the loft and Taylor got rid of the couch Ali picked BUT Buck lived in Abby's apartment, so Abby also came with a couch. So 3 relationships, 3 couches, but Buck only says 2. That got me thinking that even though Buck didn't pick Abby's couch, he doesn't feel like he was forced into Abby's couch, like he feels about Ali and Taylor. And I know it's not really about literal couches as much as I'm reading into it, I think it's more about the stability Buck feels, or doesn't feel, attached to it. I think most of all Buck felt seen by Abby in ways he didn't with Ali or Taylor. And maybe I'm thinking too hard about pieces of furniture and talks in kitchens, but the thing with 6x12 and buddie is about Eddie understanding Buck in a way other people in his life don't. And obviously Eddie is a way more steady presence in Buck's life than Abby ever was, but a key difference between Abby to Ali and Taylor is how much they talked. And maybe there isn't a reason why Buck didn't consider Abby's couch, maybe Buck just didn't think of it, but i kinda wanna stretch the couch metaphor longer than it was intended, because in the end, if I do, it shows Buck doesn't mind having couches picked out for him, as long as he feels seen enough so it won't matter whose choice it was.

[cockworkangels]

honestly i do have to say i actually was happy with the ending in a way that i wasn't expecting a satisfying ending bc every other supposed ending point of the series i didn't really find satisfying but an actual answer to the central theme of the series for real this time yippee and so on! like lestat actually being able to find meaning in his own immortality and fulfillment in his need for recognition in the community of vampires he was instrumental in creating and actually like yeah sure i'll take that

[wubblebubbleballxtream]

guys if you had to pick which one